Decision makers involved in prevention of water contamination often lack the technical knowledge of water quality evaluation or the comprehension of complex software for environmental information management required to make effective decisions. Providing information about the environment is not an easy task due to its complex structure, relationships, and dynamic processes. Because environmental models play an important role in environmental decision support systems, the integration of models into user-friendly integrated information systems is a key factor in the support of such users. This paper presents an environmental information system which supports water protection of Coatzacoalcos River in Mexico, having as a main building block water quality assessments supported by mathematical modeling through the two-dimensional Saint V enant and Advection-Diffusion-Reaction equations to calculate the river hydrodynamics and the contaminant transport, respectively. The mathematical modeling solution yields appropriate results representing the river contaminant distribution when compared with field measurements. But the direct use of these models by decision makers is difficult at best, meanin g they are not likely to be used in maki ng practical decisions. The system described in this paper integrates these models, and several other tools, into a seamless, user-centered application, improving model usability, initial configuration, and results visualization.
KeywordsEnvironmental Information SystemsEnvironmental Decision Support SystemsWater Quality ModelingIntegrated Modeling
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